Over the last fortnight Manchester Untied have been heavily linked with a move for Arsenal’s want-away striker Robin van Persie. But let’s just wait and ask ourselves – is a striker really the priority for us?
Both our left-back and the centre-mid spots need reinforcement.
Paul Scholes, Michael Carrick and Anderson are the only senior centre-midfielders and with Anderson’s disappointing progress and Scholes’ limited capabilities in terms of games per week, a centre-mid should be our top priority.
A conventional centre-mid like Nuri Sahin or Yohan Cabaye is what we need, both of whom can be purchased for an amount well less than £15 million. Alike many fans I am really looking forward to watching Ryan Tunnicliffe get some first team action next season who’s been at United since the age of 9 and loves the club to the core.
You can see what it means to him to put on that red shirt even when he’s playing for the reserves or the U18s. A special mention for the 17-year old academy star from Norway, Mats Daehli who looks certain to make it big at United one day.
Second on the priority list is the left-back spot. Patrice Evra’s most recent performances have been something of a worry and with Fabio spending the next season on loan at Queens Park Rangers, we’re desperately short in that particular position. It could be the right time to sign an eventual replacement of Evra, someone like Aly Cissokho who perfectly fits in all of United’s requirements in a transfer target.
The Lyon left-back is 24, good going forward, a good defender and has great speed, strength and stamina. He provides good resale value and should cost around £16 million but Lyon wouldn’t want to let go of an opportunity to leech out as much as they can for the French international.
Cissokho is so good that he has the potential to be the world’s best left-back, so an interest in him is easily expected from all the top clubs in Europe. Baines, as we all know, is England’s number two after Ashley Cole, and has all the qualities to succeed at United. Robbie Brady and Tyler Blackett would be hoping to get a few chances in the domestic cup competitions.
Shinji Kagawa and Nick Powell, both look promising signings and I cannot wait to see Wayne Rooney, Danny Welbeck, Ashley Young/Nani, Antonio Valenica and Kagawa in the same team linking up together. The coming season is going to be as challenging as it gets.
Chelsea and Manchester City will be the major threats to our title bid and we would have to play a lot more positive football if we want to come out on top. The return of United captain and lion, Nemanja Vidic would give the attackers a little more confidence going forward knowing they’ve got a rock behind them to take care of business in the other end.
Everton away on the 20th August could not come sooner.
Uniteds kit sponors for the 2012 season remains AON. The growth of poker has statistically seen a greater involvement in football. Bwin has become Manchester Uniteds bookmaking and online gaming partner after signing a multi million pound deal that adds to the list of Uniteds sponsors. It follow the trend of premier league teams having a poker or gaiming sponsor
By Sriram Narasimhan @srinarasimhan
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